cordingly defeated, and his cause appeared desperate when the unexpected death of Magnus raised him to the throne. Thus ended the perilous competition between England and the northern states. Sweyn's second application for assistance against Harold, who had succeeded to Norway, though again supported by Godwin, was negatived by the good sense of Leofric and the community. Edward, or his council, wisely suffered the spirit of hostility to die of itself. Even in his own dominions the mildness of his character soon reconciled the Danes to his administration ; the animosity of faction and the distinction between the two nations gradually disappeared. In most of the provinces they were interspersed with the natives; they spoke nearly the same language, and differed little in their manners and laws. The joy of the English, however, on their present deliverance from a foreign sceptre, so strongly impressed their minds, that they instituted an annual festival for commemorating that great event, and it was observed in some parts of the country even to the time of Spelman. This relief, however, was but partial, for it was succeeded by another intervention of foreign influence, similar in kind though not in degree.

The king had been educated in Normandy, and had contracted many intimacies with the natives of that country, as well as an affection for their manners. The friends of his exile he invited over to England; his court was soon filled with Normans, who being distinguished both by the royal favour and a superior degree of refinement, soon rendered their language, customs, and laws fashionable in the kingdom. The study of the French, or Romance, as it was then called, became general among the people. The king himself was partial to that dialect, and this tended to diffuse its popularity. The courtiers affected to imitate that nation in their dress, equipage, and entertainments. Even the lawyers employed a foreign language in their deeds and papers. The adoption of these changes gave Edward an additional reason for retaining about his person the clerks' whom he had brought from France, and by whom all his writing business was transacted. They were his domestic chaplains, and the keepers of his conscience; and besides these influential functions, they were his legal advisers, and his secretaries of state; and as such they seem to have formed a bench in the Witenagemot. The chief of these was his arch-chaplain or chancellor; through them it was the custom to prefer all petitions and requests to the king; and there is no doubt they would find various means of serving their own friends, and disappointing the adverse party. The chaplains or clerks of the chancery were particularly obnoxious, many of them obtained the best places of honour and emolument in the king's gift. But, above all, the church felt the influence and dominion of these strangers. Two of the royal chaplains were created bishops of Dorchester and London; Robert, a Norman, was promoted to the see of Canterbury, and always enjoyed the favour of his master, of which his abilities rendered him not unworthy. Though Edward conferred most of the civil and military employments on natives, yet the ecclesiastical preferments fell mostly to the share of the Normans; and as they possessed the royal confidence, they had secretly a strong sway in public affairs. This innovation might appear natural, as it might proceed from grati tude to the friends of his exile, and the companions of his youth; but it excited the jealousy of the English nobles, particularly of Ear!

Godwin, to whose ambition it presented an unpardonable obstacle. From murmuring, he proceeded to open rebellion; and immediately raised a military force from his own counties of Kent, Sussex, and Wessex. His sons had been advanced to honours and dignities, and the whole south of England, from Norfolk to Cornwall, was included in their respective earldoms. A family in these powerful circumstances could ill brook the usurpations of overweening foreigners. They treated the king with great insolence for encouraging strangers; and we are literally told by one who derived his information from their contemporaries, that they made him the butt of their ridicule. Edward was too placid to resent these affronts, but the Normans took offence and identified their own quarrels and injuries with those of their patron. For a time the insurrection of Godwin and his followers was repressed by the overwhelming opposition of Leofric earl of Mercia, and Siward earl of Northumbria, two powerful barons who adhered to the party of the king and the Normans. It was not long, however, before their animosity broke out into action. Eustace, count of Bologne, who had married Edward's sister Goda, had repaired to England to visit the court of his brother-in-law. Passing through Dover, where they appear to have conducted themselves with great arrogance, one of his retainers being refused entrance to a lodging which had been assigned him, attempted to make his way by force, and in the struggle he wounded the master of the house. The alarm spread, and the inhabitants revenged this insult by the death of the stranger. The count and his train took arms, forced their way into the house, and murdered the wounded Englishman. A general tumult ensued; the streets of the town were scoured by the horsemen; nearly twenty persons were killed on each side; but the citizens defended themselves so stoutly that Eustace, overpowered with numbers, and having lost most of his train, was obliged to save himself by flight from the vengeance of the populace. He hastened instantly to Edward and complained of the usage he had met with. The king who had heard only one side of the dispute, entered reluctantly into the quarrel; and was highly displeased that a stranger of such distinction should, without any just cause, as he believed, have felt so sensibly the inhospitality and violence of his people. He gave orders to Godwin, in whose government Dover lay, to proceed forthwith and punish the town by military execution. Nothing could have been more disagreeable to that factious chief than such an order, had it even been justified by law. But at present he desired rather to encourage than repress popular discontent against those obnoxious foreigners; accordingly he refused obedience, and endeavoured to throw the whole blame of the riot on the count and his retinue. Perceiving a rupture to be unavoidable, he made preparations for his own defence or rather for an attack on Edward. His sons with their armies joined him in this rebellion, and demanded that Eustace and the Frenchmen should be delivered over to their vengeance. Under pretence of repressing some disorders on the Welsh frontier, they approached Gloucester where the king, without any military force, and without suspicion, happened to reside. Edward was greatly alarmed, for he knew the power of his adversary, and immediately applied to Leofric and Siward,

• Ingulf. 62.

praying for their assistance in this extremity. These noblemen, jealous of Godwin's greatness and well-affected to the crown, assembled the militia of their extensive earldoms, and marched without delay to the defence of the king's person and authority. Attended by a consider. able army, Edward ventured to take the field, and marching to London, he summoned a great council to judge of the cause of this insurrection The proposal was too reasonable not to be accepted; and at first the rebels pretended they were willing to stand their trial But Godwin, who might have taken the king by surprise at Gloucester had he acted with vigour and expedition, found, on his coming to London, that the national assembly were by no means ready to become the instruments of his ambition, and that his own partisans had too much fallen off to measure strength with the king. The tide of fortune had now turned, and his adversaries were determined to push their advantages to the uttermost. Sentence of banishment was pronounced against Godwin and Harold, and within five days they were to depart forth of England. Their forces were dispersed and their estates confiscated. The father and three of his sons, Gurth, Sweyn, and Tosti, took shelter with Baldwin earl of Flanders, whose daughter was married to Tosti. The other two, Harold and Leofwin, fled with some difficulty to Ireland. His sister, the virgin-queen Editha, was confined to the monastery of Whirwell in Hampshire, where she was kept in cheerless captivity. Thus a formidable insurrection was quelled without bloodshed, and the greatness of an ambitious family seemed now to be totally supplanted and overthrown. But Godwin was too firmly seated in his authority, and too well-supported by his foreign allies, not to make new efforts for his re-establishment. In a very short time, with a fleet of freebooters from all nations, he put to sea and attempted to make a descent at Sandwich; but the preparations of Edward obliged him to retire. In a second expedition he sailed to the Isle of Wight, where he was joined by Harold with a squadron from Ireland. He was soon master of the channel; and entering every harbour in the southern coast, he seized all the ships, and summoned those counties subject to his government to assist him in procuring justice to himself, his family, and his country against the tyranny of foreigners. Great numbers joined his standard, and entering the Thames he appeared before London, where every thing was thrown into confusion and dismay. Edward seemed resolved to defend himself to the last extremity; but his soldiers, as before, were averse to civil war; and as Englishmen only were engaged on the other side, they scrupled to fight with their own kinsmen. The reluctance of the army, and the interposition of the nobles, made the king listen to terms of accommodation. The apparent moderation of the Godwins, who limited their petitions to the restoration of their former territories and dignities, and the feigned humility of the old earl, who disclaimed all intentions of offering violence to his sovereign, desiring only to justify himself by a fair and open trial, paved the way for a more easy admission. The result was highly favourable to the exiles. The great council stipulated that Godwin should give hostages for his good conduct; they declared that he and his sons were innocent of the crimes laid to their charge, and restored to them their earldoms. AU

Chron. Sax. 163.-Flor. 412.

the Normans were declared outlaws. The primate of Canterbury was deposed, and narrowly escaped with his life, so strongly were the people incensed against him. He contrived with the bishop of Dorchester to break out through the east gate of that city; and killing or wounding those who attempted to stop them, they betook themselves to the coast and put to sea. Others of the Normans took refuge in the castles of their countrymen; the queen was restored to her former rank; and this sudden revolution in their favour was enough to satisfy the ambition and appease the resentment of her family. By these concessionsthe present danger of a civil war was obviated; but the authority of the crown was considerably impaired, or rather entirely annihilated. Sensible that he had not power sufficient to secure Godwin's hostages, the king sent them over to his kinsman the young duke of Normandy. The death of this nobleman, which happened soon after while sitting at table with Edward, rather increased than diminished the authority of his house. Harold, his eldest son, who was actuated by an ambition equal to that of the father, and was his superior in talent and in virtue, succeeded him in the government of Wessex, Sussex, Kent, and Essex; and in the office of steward of the royal household, a place of great power. By his bounty and his affability he gained influence every day, and Edward, who had not sufficient vigour directly to oppose his progress, tried the hazardous expedient of raising a rival in the person of Algar son of Leofric, whom he invested with the government of East Anglia, which had belonged to Harold before his banishment. But this policy of balancing parties only created new broils. Algar was expelled by the intrigue of Harold; and the influence of the latter triumphed over every obstacle.7 On the first insurrection of Godwin, Edward, by the advice of his French favourites, had solicited the assistance of William, who had recently succeeded his father Robert as duke of Normandy; but before that prince reached the coast of England with a powerful fleet, tranquillity had been restored. As his military services were no longer wanted, he landed with a gallant train of knights, and was kindly received by Edward, who conducted him with great honour through several of the cities and royal villas, and dismissed him with magnificent presents. Many-with what truth we can only conjecturehave alleged that the real object of this visit was the future invasion and conquest of England by William, and his succession to the crown. His family was certainly allied by marriage with that of Edward, and he was himself bound to that monarch by ties of friendship and gratitude. The Godwins were outlawed, and no competition seemed then likely to arise from that or any other quarter. Besides, Edward was living without a prospect of issue; and, except one royal youth in Hungary, the throne was left without an heir. The contemplation of these circumstances might excite the hope or the cupidity of William; but nothing is recorded of any plans or explanatory purposes which he might then have formed with a view to his elevation. The abbot Ingulfus, who accompanied him on his return to Normandy, and was for several years his confidential secretary, assures us that the idea of succeeding to the crown of England had not yet presented itself to his mind.

But on the return of Godwin, and the banishment of the Nor

7 Flor. 416. Chron. Sax. 169.

mans, affairs assumed a different aspect. Robert, archbishop of Canterbury, had, before his expulsion, persuaded Edward to think of adopting William as his successor: an advice which was equally recommended by the king's aversion to Godwin, his predilection for the French, and his affection for the duke. That prelate accordingly received a commission to inform William of the king's intentions in his favour, and this intimation was the light that first kindled his ambition. But Edward, irresolute and feeble in his purpose, perceiving that the English would more easily acquiesce in the restoration of the Saxon line, determined to invite his brother's descendants from Hungary, with a view of having them recognised heirs to the crown. In this resolution he was the more confirmed by the increasing power of Harold, and the prospect that the kingdom at his decease would fall a prey to confusion and anarchy. Aldred, bishop of Worcester, with an honourable embassy, was sent to demand the exiled son of Edmund, of the emperor Henry III. into whose family he had married, and the young Edward, the outlaw, arrived in London with his wife and three children, Edgar, Margaret and Christina. Greatly did the English rejoice on their return, for Ironside had been much beloved; but their gladness was soon converted into mourning. In a short time the prince sickened and died at London; and was interred in St Paul's Cathedral, amidst the sorrows and suspicions of the nation. In his death there is something mysterious. He had been studiously kept at a distance from the king, and as he was regarded by Harold a dangerous obstacle to the success of his future projects, there is strong ground to suspect poison, or some unfair agency. The premature demise of his nephew, and the unpromising qualities of young Edgar, caused Edward to resume his former intentions in favour of the duke of Normandy; though prudence taught him to postpone the execution, and even to keep his purpose secret from all his ministers. This choice, disastrous as it afterwards appeared to be from its consequences, was not devoid of political foresight. Edmund with

out doubt viewed the nomination of the Norman duke as the surest mode of averting the evils of foreign servitude or domestic war. The Danish kings, the pirates of the north, were arming to regain the dominions which their great Canute had ruled. At the very outset of his reign Magnus had claimed the English crown. A competition at home had diverted Magnus from this enterprise; but at another time the northern claim might be resumed; and in that event the wise and valiant William was more likely to resist a Danish invasion, than the inexperience of the infant Edgar.

Meanwhile Harold, who had his eye upon the crown, took every occasion of increasing his popularity, and preparing the way for his advancement on the first vacancy, which from the age and infirmities of the king appeared not far distant. Fortune about this time threw two incidents in his way, by which he was enabled to acquire general favour, and to augment the reputation he had already attained of virtue and abilities. He undertook an expedition against the Welsh, who had long been accustomed to infest the western frontiers, and after committing spoil on the low countries, used to retire hastily to their mountains where they set pursuit at defiance. With a squadron of ships, and a body of light armed troops to attack them in their fortresses, he soon reduced the marauders to such distress that, in order to avert their total destruction,